RURAL COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT A CASE STUDY OF URUKOBONG IBESIT COMMUNITY, IN ORUK ANAM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF AKWA IBOM STATE
CHAPTER ONE
Urukobong Ibesit Village is a village in Southern Anam in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The said local government is made up of seven clans viz: Ibesit, Ndot, Obio Akpa, Nung Ikot, Ekparakwa, Inen, and Nung Ita. Oruk Anam Local Government Area lies between Ikot Abasi Local Government and Imo River crossing to Port Harcourt of Rivers State and Ukanafun Local Government, Etim Ekpo, Ika and Abak Local Government Area. The people of Oruk Anam are really the Annang people of the old Annang nation but the people of Uruk Obong are believed to be of the semi Banty stock who migrated from South-West Africa in their early movements and settled at Ibesit Okporkoro in the Western Oruk Anam before migrating to the present Urukobong of the same Local Government Area. (Dominus Essien 1993). Essien stated further that Urukobong people later left Ibesit Okpokoro to settle in the present Urukobong village.
Uruk Obong Ibesit Community like all other communities in Oruk Anam Local Government Area has the same ancestral root. One may in the course of communication notice a slight difference in accent which depends also on who the closest neighbour is. Thus the communities in Southern Oruk Anam who are close to and intermingle with Ikot Abasi people, have the accent typical that of Ikot Abasi. The Northern Oruk Anam communities have their accent blended with that of Ukanafun with whom they socialize together and are neighbours too. Central Oruk Anam communities that socialize with the Annang dialect and the mainland accent keep their tone of Annang dialect intact.
Urukobong community, had their way of communication long before the coming of Europeans. Their systems of traditional communication are categorized by Wilso (1987) as follow:
- Instrumental mode of communication
- Demonstrative mode of communication
- Iconographic mode of communication
- Extra mundane mode of communication
- Visual mode of communication
- Institutional mode of communication
All the modes outlined above have their respective ways of communication among to people.
Instrumental Mode:
This mode is identified with objects such as the wooden drum (Iwid), metal gong (Nkwong), Wooden Block (Aworom), Wooden gong (Ntakorok), etc. The various instruments belonging to this group communicate to the people in different situations. They are used in the dissemination of information to the people and for cultural entertainment.
Demonstrative Mode
Instruments such as the wooden drums and talking drums are in the demonstrative class. These drums can speak to the dancers who would then gyrate to convince the drummer and the audience of their understanding of the message of the drum through their feedback.
Iconographic Mode:
Iconographic objects include young palm frond (Ajeyi), Peacock feather (Ntang Akrukruk) etc. each of the two object has peculiar message to give. The Peacocks feather is a status symbol in the area. Anybody seen with Ntang Akrukruk is highly regarded as being a member of Nabor Cult. The other a floral mode (Ajayi) has multiple functions to perform ranging from being an instrument for peace settlement to traditional decoration.
Extra Mundane Mode:
This has to do with communicating either with the dead through libation or with the Supreme being via incantation or prayer.
Visual Mode
The natural objects like the heavenly bodies e.g. the moon, stars and sky and the tombstone have their unique ways of communicating with the people. Even the water levels in the river are messages and convey meanings to the people.
Institutional Mode
The most important of institutional mode of communication for the people are seen in marriage, chieftaincy, secret societies, shrines and masquerades. These various group have their ways of communicating with members and non members. Ekong-awa which is an institutional mode of communication in the area that will unravel secret events or crimes committed by members of the public during their outings. On that Udo (1983:140) states: “Ekong-awa in modern times is the village secret agent. Whatever crimes people had committed in secret during the year, Ekong-awa would reveal to everyone in the village during this session”. This means that, even the masquerade is an instrument as well as channel of communication for the people. We have so far seen the various ways and methods, and even the different channels of communication that the people have. From here one is convinced that the people have been communicating among themselves for a long time and, the community should be well developed except and unless they are impeded.
The New Lexicon Webster’s / Encyclopedia English Dictionary
describes ‘development’ as the act of developing a tract of land developed as a unit by public or private enterprise for residential or industrial purposes with the houses, factories, shops etc built on it.
That same dictionary also defines “development area” as an area suffering industrial decline and unemployment, where the government actively encourages greater industrial diversity.
From the above explanation, one now understands development as an “act of developing” and development area as an area suffering industrial decline and unemployment. We are therefore, in this research going to see whether Urukobong Ibesit community is developed or developing an if not find out what is responsible.
Sometimes a lot of people misconstrue development to mean only availability of infrastructure without thinking of unemployment. From the above definition, it is clearly stated that the society that unemployment prevails suffers from underdevelopment as well.
So, development in the real sense, is a situation in which the society makes its people live under richer and better living conditions.
According to Udofia (1991:201), it is estimated that between 90 – 95 percent of Nigerians live in rural areas. Sometimes rural areas are vaguely defined in terms of population and availability of indices of modern society such as electricity and pipe-borne water etc. When there is dearth of infrastructure and communication facilities in an area, that area is grossly undeveloped.
In rural areas, many communication facilities are not provided to achieve effective communication within and outside the community. An example of such communities is Urukobong Ibesit village. In Urukobong Ibesit, a borehole dug by the non-governmental organization had since ceased to function while the abandoned electricity project becomes a monumental failure in the eyes of the people. On the other hand, the rural people could not communicate effectively because of inadequate financial capacity to purchase and enjoy communication facilities such as television, radio, newspapers and micro generating sets to drive their electronic gadgets.
It is therefore, pertinent to note that socio-economic and political development of any society or community depends on how effective the community communicates within and outside its confines. It is against this background therefore, that this research is undertaken to find out the role communication plays in the development of Urukobong Ibesit Community.
Communication is an indispensable means of achieving mass mobilization for socio-economic and political development of the people. As such, the need for effective communication for rural development needs not be overemphasized. What are the communication channels been in the dissemination of developmental information in Urukobong Ibesit village? These and other issues would be examined in this study.
